


Of Scions and Sinners

by SnowVix



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: POV First Person, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowVix/pseuds/SnowVix
Summary: (Spoiler warning for the Dark Knight job quest chain through Stormblood and general events of the Heavensward expansion)The game certainly glosses over a lot of the internal dialogue, even in the job quest that's all about internal dialogue. A small interstitial after the dialogue choice in the level 70 Dark Knight cutscene, exploring how the WoL and her darkside interact after the time they've spent together.
Kudos: 3





	Of Scions and Sinners

**Author's Note:**

> due to my playthrough being as a female PC, she/her pronouns are used for the WoL's darkside

##### Listen to my voice…. Listen to my heartbeat….

"I tire of this charade."

I relax and fall back, a brief respite before coming face to face with her. In this empty space both ephemeral and very real, my shadow speaks first.

"Quite the fine mess you've gotten us into now, isn't this? The boy may have meant well, but so did so many others. And now he means to prevent us from causing any more suffering the only way we know how."

"He certainly has a wealth to choose from, whether they stood against or beside us. Weren’t those his words?”

“The words of an idealist who never gave up on the hope that an ancient conflict could be resolved through understanding, maybe?”

“So you noticed that, too, huh?”

“I was birthed of your anger at a deep betrayal, and your still-strong love for those who stood by you despite it. How could I not notice? And did you not see the hints I tried to communicate to you?”

I cast my face down, and she knew the answer before I could speak it.

“You saw them fine, but wanted to let it play out as atonement. And only now that you’re at what you consider your just reckoning, you finally want to have this chit-chat?”

I didn't answer.

"And then just leave me to pick up the pieces afterward, after you've 'atoned' for those who died in your name or in your path by giving up your own existence? I guess you really weren't ready when you picked up our crystal. Looks like you're going to let someone down for the first time because you're a coward."

"I'm not a coward!" Bile rose in my throat as I spat the words at her. "I'm nothing but a weapon being pointed at my next target, just like you said, and Myste has the trail of bodies to prove it!"

"And we've been together since then and your compatriots have proven me wholly wrong on that! Especially Ser Graystone and Lady Iceheart!"

I sat stunned, tears threatening to overwhelm my already damp vision. She may not have been the Dark Knight whose body provided me with the now split crystal, but she'd inherited his disdain for titles, enough that hearing her use them was itself a shock, but the specific ones she named--

"They saw you at your lowest, your worst, your least ready to believe in another, and they saw someone who would do so much good, that it was worth their own lives to ensure you finished your job."

"And I did my job, I did what was asked of me and I cast down false gods, and in the process slew good men they'd ensnared! I did everything right and still there is blood on my hands!"

"The good men were dead the moment they were ensnared by those primals and we both know this. You saw the difference between the Ser Ignasse that had been blessed by Thordan and the one conjured by Myste. And you would let that make you forsake your promise to the one who said those words first, your counterpart from the doomed reflection?"

A breath. Then another. "You're right. His words cut deep because he knew how to find purchase in my doubts, for the same reason you did. Let's bring him home. Justice demands no less than this."

My shadow smiles, as my consciousness returns to my body. I rise to my feet once more, staring down the physical manifestation of my doubts and my guilt. My enemy in this moment, but as much a part of us as my shadow. As I turn to Myste, a welcoming look on my face despite the drawn greatsword, my shadow stands beside me, taking her familiar helmeted shape. She nods to me, and speaks for us both.

“Serve… Save… Slave… Slay…. I’ve sins aplenty, aye, but regrets? Not so much.”


End file.
